Blake Schwendiman's Blog and Blook

Chapter 19

Thursday, 10 March 2022 – 6:00 a.m. MST

At six a.m. Ramesh was awakened by the hotel concierge. The car would be available at six forty-five. He felt that he hadn’t slept at all. He showered and dressed, still feeling a bit embarrassed that he had arrived in Phoenix yesterday in such a disheveled state. It probably wouldn’t have bothered him, but he hadn’t planned on meeting Valerie.

He was ready to go at twenty past six, so he phoned down for tea. As he sipped Earl Gray on the balcony overlooking Camelback Mountain, he found that in spite of everything else he was experiencing, he did enjoy the view. The scent of orange blossoms carried on the light breeze. It was a perfect March day in Phoenix.

The car arrived at precisely six forty-five. In just over thirty minutes, Ramesh was entering the main floor of Q-Morrow headquarters again. The security officer greeted Ramesh by name in a friendly tone and directed him to the elevators.

At the top floor, Valerie greeted Ramesh. She looked even better than she had the previous day. Ramesh felt a pleasant peacefulness in seeing her. There was something about her that so much reminded him of Padumi. He drank in her smile. Her eyes lit him up and he felt more revived from her simple greeting than from all the cups of Earl Gray he had ever enjoyed.

“How did you sleep?” Valerie asked as they walked through the reception area.

“Very well,” Ramesh lied. He had no interest in burdening Valerie with his past.

“Are you ready for all of this?” she asked casting a quick glance over her shoulder at Ramesh and winking.

“I suppose,” he answered. “I’m not sure I know enough about all of this, but I suspect it will all become clear today.” He couldn’t believe he had just said that. He was as skeptical as ever.

“Yes. It most definitely will,” Valerie said. There was something more serious about her tone. Ramesh heard it.

Quinn sat in his spot in the conference room. Ramesh sat beside him and Valerie pulled up a chair on the other side of Quinn. Ramesh smiled as he realized that Valerie was going to stay.

Quinn started, “Ram, let’s recap. Remind me where we left off.”

Ramesh thought for a moment. He wasn’t sure if he could remember exactly where they had left things. He began, “The last thing that I remember discussing was how you used the future information to build your business. You said that you used lottery winnings and stock market information to develop the wealth you needed to buy your businesses.”

“That’s a bit of an oversimplification, but I may have given you that impression,” Quinn interjected. “I won a single lottery. I didn’t want to attract too much attention. Then I invested for a while. I found stocks with very good immediate upside and I invested. But that only took the company so far.”

“How do you mean?” Ramesh asked with renewed interest.

Quinn continued, “What would you say if I told you that this whole enterprise is based on theft?”

Ramesh laughed. “Absurd. I may not know much about your business, but I do know that everything you have ever released successfully has been years ahead of the closest competition. Who could you have possibly stolen from?” As soon as Ramesh finished his statement, his jaw slackened and his eyes widened. He realized in an instant the true potential of having a window on the future.

Quinn saw the recognition in his face. He explained, “We stole ideas from anyone ... everyone we could. We started with computer hardware and networking companies such as Ioline Networks and Transgenic Switch. After building out our technology companies, we switched to biotech. We stole patents from Krupp Biolabs and we stole the entire body of intellectual property from CTG Biowerks. Not to mention all of the small labs and individual researchers.” Quinn leaned forward and pressed on his temples, massaging them. He sighed.

Ramesh stared. “These companies, I have never heard of them ... It is because you put them out of business before they went into business...”

Valerie answered this time. “Exactly,” she said. “It makes your brain hurt if you think about it too long, though, doesn’t it?” She smiled. She had obviously come to be quite comfortable with the idea.

“It’s not right.” Ramesh spoke softly. “Quinn, what you have done is not ethical ... How is this possible?”

Quinn glanced downward and answered, “I know. At first I tried very hard to justify myself. I reasoned that if I stole something from someone before they even had it that they would never experience the loss and therefore no harm was done. But we did steal all of the ideas that launched this enterprise. We found patent documents for ideas that were decades away. There were research papers, company emails, and every other type of information you can imagine. It became clear very quickly that winning lotteries and playing the stock markets were insignificant compared to what we could do. And so it began. We killed fledgling companies by stealing their own ideas years before they would develop them. We stopped other companies from ever getting started. Like I said before, we built an empire by doing little more than stealing.”

Quinn paused again. Ramesh was silent. Quinn waited.

Valerie broke the silence, “But we’re not doing that anymore.”

“What?” Ramesh asked. He was lifted by her voice.

Quinn stepped in, “We’re not actively using the futurestream for research and development anymore. In that sense we’re no longer stealing from the future. But, to be completely honest, it’s no longer necessary. Because now all of the future ideas in our market space are being researched by our own companies. Whenever we look into the future of biotech, it’s one of our own companies on the patent. No sense in stealing from ourselves since most of the ideas are beyond our capability to implement anyway. That’s why they’re in our own future.”

“But the damage is done. You stole. You cheated.” Ramesh argued. He had built a healthy business for himself writing about corporate and interpersonal ethics. It was a slap in the face that Quinn, an old friend, was so desperately devoid of any ethics.

Quinn ran a hand through his hair and gave a half smile. “You’re right. And I live with that every day. And more.” He trailed off.

Ramesh furrowed his brow. “What more?” he asked.

Valerie shifted in her chair slightly. She had a sense of where the conversation was going and had hoped to avoid the topic, but Quinn had told her that it would come up. He was right.

“Humor me again for just one moment, will you?” Quinn asked.

Ramesh nodded.

“How do you change the future?” Quinn raised his eyebrows and waited.

“For you it seems rather easy. Just send a message into the future and make whatever change you need,” Ramesh answered cynically.

Quinn heard the frustration in Ramesh’s voice. He countered, “No. That’s not what I meant. And we can’t send messages through time, I just want to clarify that, but we’ll come back to that. What I mean is how do you change the future.”

Ramesh did not expect that question. His head buzzed with thoughts. He struggled to make sense of the question. “I am not sure how you want me to answer.”

Quinn broke the question down, “Let’s say you want to make a fortune in the stock market. You wish to change your financial future. How do you do it?”

Ramesh began to see the direction of the question and answered, “I suppose I would begin by first learning about the stock market. Then I would make decisions about which stocks to purchase and consult with others for advice.”

“Perfect,” Quinn interrupted. “The key phrase is that you would make decisions. You see, every decision you make affects your future and the future of countless other people. At the most basic level, all you have to do is commit to an idea and you will change the future. Depending on the idea, the outcome may affect just you, or it may affect you and your family. Or if it’s a big enough commitment, you may affect thousands of people.”

Valerie smiled at Ramesh and added, “Now, if you have a very good idea about the future outcome of a decision, how does that affect your decision?”

“It simplifies it,” Ramesh answered.

“Exactly,” said Quinn. “Would you like to see how it works?”

“Sorry?” Ramesh asked, unsure about the question.

“Would you like a demonstration?” Quinn asked again.

Ramesh shook his head, but said, “I suppose so.”

“Do you have an investment account?” Quinn asked.

“Yes,” Ramesh answered tentatively, “with Schneider Holdings in Fort Collins.” He didn’t have much in his portfolio as he had lost interest in planning for the future when he lost his family. It seemed futile.

Across the room, one of the displays lit and showed the account access screen for Schneider Holdings.

“Account number and password?” Quinn asked.

Ramesh hesitated.

“I’m not going to steal from you.” Quinn assured.

Valerie smiled and nodded to Ramesh, encouraging him. Ramesh provided the information and in a second they were all looking at his personal investment portfolio. On a separate segment of the display, several stock issues and prices appeared.

“These are the best stocks to pick today if you want a healthy return on investment to cash out in a year. We can look at best performers for a month, or just for today,” Quinn said. As he spoke, the display updated, showing a different set of symbols and their returns. “Let’s take a look at the one-year stocks.” The display switched again. “It looks like one good performer is going to be Genosoft AB. Even without being able to see the future, that seems like a good pick, but we can see the future and they’re going to provide a five-hundred fifty percent return over the next twelve months. And there’s a ninety-six percent confidence on that information.”

“Confidence?” Ramesh asked.

Quinn explained that his views on the future were based on a vast number of individual data values. “You see, we may have received as few as one packet of data or as many as thousands of packets that each contain a view of the same piece of information. Each packet may be from a different point in the future and each will have been affected by enumerable decisions. The future is not static and it is affected by decisions of people, executive boards, companies and it is affected by outside forces such as weather, geological or cosmic events. So we take all of the individual data points and assess confidence based on how many individual points we receive and how different those points are from each other.”

Ramesh shook his head, “I will have to think about that some before I am clear.”

“I’ll come back to it. The point is that if you want to make a decent return, you should definitely purchase some shares of Genosoft. Okay?”

“Do you want me to buy some stock right now?” Ramesh asked.

“No. I want you to decide to buy some Genosoft stock right now,” Quinn responded.

“Decide?” Ramesh was puzzled.

“Commit to me and Valerie that when you get home you’ll buy five hundred shares of Genosoft,” Quinn said in a completely serious tone.

Ramesh shook his head again, but responded, “If you say...”

Valerie interrupted, “Just commit to me that you’ll do it. Please.”

Ramesh couldn’t say no. It made no sense, but he committed to her that he would do it, and he smiled the whole time.

“Great!” Quinn clasped his hands together. “Now lets take a look at your future portfolio.” On another screen, information scrolled and bits of information appeared and disappeared briefly. “What do you think your account should be worth next year?” Quinn asked.

“It has been earning six to seven percent,” Ramesh answered, intrigued by the new display. When the display brightened, Ramesh saw a screen similar to the current account information, but the date was just over a year in the future. He stared at the balance. It was more than five times the current. He muttered in Hindi. “Is that real? How is that possible?”

Valerie responded, “You committed to buy Genosoft just now. So that means that when you went back to Fort Collins, or rather when you go back, you cashed out your current portfolio and bought Genosoft just like you said you would. I mean you will buy Genosoft,” she laughed. “It’s hard to keep it straight.”

Ramesh sat quietly. He attempted to process all of the information. “In truth,” he said, “I wasn’t going to buy the stock. Only after you showed me the value...”

“A paradox,” Quinn interrupted as he stretched his arms above his head. “I’ve never completely come to terms with the chicken and egg question. It just works.”

Ramesh stood. He paced a few steps then paused. He turned to say something, shook his head then paced some more. “You said there was more? Something more than just the theft of intellectual property?”

“Yeah.” Quinn’s answer erupted as more of a sigh than an actual word. He rubbed his hands through his hair. “Human nature, free will. I had always intended to use the futurestream to help people. You know, balance out the negative with some positive. I scanned the news, searched the future, sought the terrible and tried to make it right. And for a time, it seemed to work.”

Ramesh returned to his chair. Quinn’s mood had changed. Valerie looked more sullen. Ramesh felt his own mood thicken.

“But I found that I could never project the impact of my actions, so I stopped. I stopped playing superman and focused on my business.” Quinn looked at Ramesh. “There were so many times that I wanted to get involved to avert a disaster, to save a friend ... or his family.”

Ramesh felt a pit open inside himself. His head spun. “Dear God,” he whispered. The pounding in his ears increased. He stood. He spun toward the elevator. He tried to run, but his legs were disconnected from his mind. He only made three strides before collapsing on his knees. Blackness spun inward. Distant voices called. The blackness overwhelmed him.